Fundamentals of Business Process Management - DINUS

1 Fundamentals of Business Process Management Marlon Dumas r Marcello La Rosa r Jan Mendling r Hajo A. Reijers Fundamentals of Business Process Management Marlon Dumas Jan Mendling Institute of Computer Science Institute for Information Business University of Tartu Vienna University of Economics Tartu, Estonia and Business Vienna, austria Marcello La Rosa Queensland University of Technology Hajo A. Reijers and NICTA Department of Mathematics Brisbane, Australia and Computer Science Eindhoven University of Technology Eindhoven, The Netherlands ISBN 978-3-642-33142-8 ISBN 978-3-642-33143-5 (eBook). DOI Springer Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: 2013932467. ACM Computing Classification (1998): , , , Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

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3 The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Cover illustration: Escher's Drawing Hands 2012 The Escher Company-Holland. All rights reserved. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+ Business Media ( ). To Inga and Maia Marlon To Chiara and Lorenzo Marcello To Stefanie Jan To Maddy, Timon and Mayu Hajo Foreword Business processes represent a core asset of corporations. They have direct impact on the attractiveness of products and services as perceived by the market. They determine tasks, jobs and responsibilities and by this, shape the work of every em- ployee. Processes integrate systems, data, and resources within and across organi- zations and any failure can bring corporate life to a standstill. Processes determine the potential of an organization to adapt to new circumstances and to comply with a fast growing number of legislative requirements. Processes influence the revenue potential as much as they shape the cost profile of an organization.

4 However, unlike other corporate assets such as products, services, workforce, brand, physical or monetary assets, the significance of Business processes had not been appreciated for a long period. Despite the fact that processes are the lifeblood of an organization, they did not develop the status of a primary citizen in boardroom discussions and managerial decision-making processes. Only the growing demands for globalization, integration, standardization, inno- vation, agility and operational efficiency, and the related challenge of finding further variables in the corporate ecosystem that can be optimized, have finally increased the appetite for reflecting on and ultimately improving Business processes. In response, over the last two decades a comprehensive set of tools, techniques, methods and entire methodologies has been developed providing support for all stages of the Business Process lifecycle. Relevant contributions have been made by diverse disciplines such as Industrial Engineering, Operations Management , Qual- ity Management , Human Capital Management , corporate governance, conceptual modeling, workflow Management and system engineering.

5 Business Process Management (BPM) is the discipline that now faces the diffi- cult, but rewarding task of consolidating and integrating the plethora of these ap- proaches. This book is the first and most up-to-date contribution that faces and masters this challenge. It succinctly captures the current status of BPM and brings meaningful order and consistency into approaches that often have been developed, discussed and deployed in isolation. vii viii Foreword Fundamentals of Business Process Management derives its merits from its firm foundation in the latest applied BPM research. Relying on scientifically sound practices means capitalizing on evidence rather than depending on confidence. This clearly differentiates this much needed publication from many of its predecessors. In particular, it gives BPM the credibility that a still young and growing discipline requires. The book itself is also a compelling showcase for the importance of a new class of processes, long living, internationally distributed, complex and flexible Business processes.

6 In this case, it is the Process of jointly writing a book involving four authors in four different countries. The team has addressed this challenge brilliantly and the outcome is an impressive compilation of the individual strengths of each author grounded in a shared understanding of the essential BPM Fundamentals and a common passion for the topic. I have no doubts that this book will shape the toolset, and hopefully even more the mindset, of the current and future generations of BPM professionals. This pub- lication has the potential to become a significant catalyst for future BPM success by establishing a common sense for the Fundamentals of BPM upon which it can be further developed and tailored to individual circumstances. The book provides the needed consistency and rigor within and across the diverse and fast growing community of professionals and researchers committed to and passionate about the merits of the Process -based organization.

7 Finally, and maybe most of all, the book is an outstanding reference for all stu- dents who are keen to learn more about and want to embrace the fascination of BPM. This long missing BPM textbook addresses a severe shortcoming within the BPM community, the lack of resources to facilitate the introduction of BPM sub- jects into tertiary and corporate education. Making BPM more accessible to future decision makers ensures that processes will play the role they deserve. Brisbane, Australia Michael Rosemann Preface First, master the Fundamentals . Larry Bird (1957 ). Business Process Management (BPM) is a special field for more than one reason. First of all, BPM is a crossroad of multiple, quite different viewpoints. Business managers are attracted to BPM because of its demonstrated ability to deliver im- provements in organizational performance, regulatory compliance and service qual- ity. Industrial engineers see BPM as an opportunity to apply well-trodden manufac- turing optimization techniques in the context of organizations that deliver services rather than physical products.

8 Finally, Information Technology (IT) specialists ap- preciate the fact that BPM provides them with a shared language to communicate with Business stakeholders. Furthermore, Business Process automation technology allows IT specialists to implement and monitor IT systems in a way that is aligned with the vision that Business stakeholders have of the organization. In other words, BPM is a boundary-spanning field that serves as a melting pot for otherwise separate communities. For those who have experienced how Business managers, industrial engineers and IT professionals often seem to live in different worlds, this shared field of interest is a remarkable opportunity to achieve a joint understanding of the inner workings of a Business . A second special characteristic of BPM is that it is both actively practiced and actively researched. In other words, it is a field where there are both proven and es- tablished practices as well as open challenges.

9 Businesses around the world are car- rying out BPM initiatives with the aim to, for example, outperform their competitors or meet the demands of regulatory authorities. Academics in fields like computer science, Management science, sociology, and engineering are working on the devel- opment of methods and techniques to support such initiatives. It is appropriate to see BPM as a theory in practice field. On the one hand, practical demands inspire the development of new methods and technologies. On the other hand, the application of these methods and technologies in practice feeds back to the drawing boards in universities and research centers. After teaching BPM to thousands of students and professionals over the past decade, we strongly feel the lack of a textbook to give a structure to our courses and to allow our audience to study for themselves beyond classwork and homework ix x Preface assignments. This situation is not due to a lack of excellent books on BPM in fact there is a good number of them but rather due to the cross-disciplinary and continuously evolving nature of BPM.

10 There are excellent treatments of BPM from a Business Management perspec- tive, most notably Harmon's Business Process Change and Sharp and McDermott's Workflow Modeling. Both of these books provide useful conceptual frameworks and practical advice and should definitely lie in the bookshelves (or better in the hands). of BPM practitioners. However, one needs an introductory background and prefer- ably years of experience in order to truly appreciate the advice given in these books. Also, these books give little attention to technology aspects such as Business Process Management systems and Process intelligence tools. On the other side of the spectrum, other books adopt a computer science per- spective to BPM, such as Van der Aalst and Van Hee's Workflow Management and Weske's Business Process Management , both focused on Process modeling, anal- ysis and automation for computer scientists. At a more specialized level, one can find a range of books focusing on Process modeling using specific languages for example Silver's BPMN Method and Style.